Volunteers mark 20 years of recycling, conservation

The nonprofit recycling and environmental education group Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful celebrates its 20th anniversary Monday, and its Earth Day Awards luncheon April 11 will feature veteran actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. as keynote speaker.

Georgette Braun

Practically every Wednesday, Ray Herzer of Rockton packs his 1994 Dodge Caravan full of worn, out-of-season clothes he’s collected from two thrift-store operations in Beloit, Wis.
About Ed Begley Jr.
TV star of:
“Living with Ed,” HGTV reality series about Ed Begley Jr., wife Rachelle and their efforts to live an environmentally safe life without driving each other crazy, according to TV Guide. The series just finished airing its second season.
“St. Elsewhere,” a doctors and hospital show popular in the 1980s, where he played Dr. Victor Ehrlich and received six Emmy nominations.
Author of a new book:
“Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life”

“I leave just enough room so I can see the side-view mirrors,” Herzer said.

He then drives to a storage facility in Loves Park near the Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful headquarters. There, he unloads the clothes that will be stored until the place is filled to the brim with between 500 and 600 13-gallon bags of old clothes.

Every two to three months, others unload the clothes from the storage area to fill a semitrailer. Eventually, 90 percent of the clothes make their way overseas, mostly to be sold at nominal costs in countries such as Africa and Honduras.

Herzer, a retired math teacher who is a volunteer at three or four other environment-related groups, is one of more than 450 volunteers for Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful. The nonprofit recycling and environmental education group celebrates its 20th anniversary Monday, and its Earth Day Awards luncheon April 11 will feature veteran actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. as keynote speaker.

Today, clothing collection nets the group its biggest volume of material to be recycled. Since 1999, when Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful started collecting clothes to keep them out of landfills and provide them to needy families overseas, the group has handled 1.7 million pounds of clothes, said Lori Gummow, executive director.

At the beginning, Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful collected 22,000 pounds of clothes at two locations at each of its clothing drives. Now, the organization collects about 14,000 pounds of clothing at each of seven drop-off points during every drive at local Hilander grocery locations. This year, there’ll be three clothing drives at local Hilanders: Anyone can drop off used clothes from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, May 10, July 12 and Oct. 11. The agency does not collect clothes from individuals at other times of the year.

Herzer said he volunteers because he likes to keep busy doing activities that are worthwhile and that organizations can’t afford to pay for.

“Don’t always talk about the ‘they,’” he said. “It’s important that we all be part of the ‘we’ when we’re doing this and that.”

Staff writer Georgette Braun can be reached at 815-987-1331 or gbraun@rrstar.com.

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